


Six Councillors, college students, walk into a room (romantically opposed, foes)

by TheDarkChocolateLord



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, D&D, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse (not graphic), M/M, Mild Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, canon? what's that?, not Pyren brothers au compliant but Fintan and Bronte are brothers in this, queer platonic kenralie, there are too many friendships to tag, they're all disasters and I love them, they're all theater kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkChocolateLord/pseuds/TheDarkChocolateLord
Summary: Terik's excited to play D&D with his boyfriend, his boyfriend's brother, and his boyfriend's brother's friends—even if it means that his plans for Fintan's birthday have gone awry.What he doesn't realize is that he's ex-boyfriends with almost everyone there, nor is he the only one who is ex-boyfriends with almost everyone there.
Relationships: Councillor Bronte & Fintan Pyren, Councillor Bronte/Councillor Emery (Keeper of the Lost Cities), Councillor Kenric & Councillor Oralie, Councillor Kenric/Councillor Oralie (Keeper of the Lost Cities), Councillor Terik/Fintan Pyren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14





	Six Councillors, college students, walk into a room (romantically opposed, foes)

**Author's Note:**

> Credit to a late-night Discord conversation for the inspiration for this fic, and to SemperAeternumQue for a couple of the lines of dialogue.

_ Goal: Throw Fintan a surprise birthday party on Friday evening. _

"Cool!" Fintan grinned, glancing at his phone and then at Terik. 

"What?" Terik asked. 

"My brother's asking us if we want to be part of a D&D group with some of his friends— _ and  _ we get to start with level five characters!" Fintan tapped at the screen. "I'm in, are you?"

"Sure!" Terik agreed. "It sounds awesome—gosh, I haven't played in like a year. When is it?"

"Friday at six. It's at my brother's friend's place."

__ Terik  _ barely  _ managed to stop himself from blurting out  _ that's your birthday and I was planning to do something even if I haven't figured out what that something is yet.  _

He'd figure out something else.

"Sure, I'm free then."

"Great!"

_ Goal: Celebrate Fintan's birthday on Friday….morning!  _

_ Realization: Fintan is not a morning person. _

_ Goal: Get Fintan a gift and cake.  _

_ Realization: Fintan is lactose intolerant. _

_ Goal: Get Fintan a gift. _

_ Realization: I left this until two and a half days before his birthday. Online shopping is useless here. _

_ Goal: Get Fintan a gift and pray that it comes in time?  _

Terik stared at his failed list, head in hands.

Maybe he could check out the stores around town for a gift for Fintan? And there  _ were  _ a couple bakeries downtown; he could probably find some kind of birthday dessert there.

That  _ could  _ work, at least.

He sighed and added one last line.

_ Goal: Just don't screw this up. _

Amazingly, Terik didn't screw it up.

Well, he didn't  _ think  _ he had.

Well, he hadn't screwed it up so far.

It had taken three thrift stores, two bakeries, and a ramble through a seemingly endless Walmart, but he had managed to find Fintan a birthday present. He could give it to Fintan just before D&D he'd be cutting it a little close, but it was the thought that counted, right?

He checked his watch. Five-twenty-one. Between classes, work, and a particularly annoying group project, he and Fintan hadn't seen each other all day. They'd agreed to meet up outside Fintan's dorm to head to D&D together at five-thirty. 

Five-twenty-eight.

Five-thirty-three.

Five-thirty-five.

Where  _ was  _ Fintan?

At five-thirty-seven, his phone dinged.

_ Play rehearsal went overtime. See you in 5. _

Shoot.

It was five-forty-three when Fintan showed up, forehead sweaty and gasping for breath. He'd clearly ran all the way from rehearsal.

"Fintan—" Terik began.

Fintan checked his watch and groaned. "We're going to be late."

"Could we take your car?" Terik tried.

"My brother has it this evening," Fintan groaned. "Let's just go. It won't be  _ that  _ bad of a walk, and we've still got seventeen minutes, right? It's only a mile away."

"Do you have your character sheet and dice?" Terik asked him.

Fintan muttered a cuss word. "No, let me go inside."

Fintan's room was a total mess when they walked in, like it had been hit by a clothing-and-stationery tornado. It took them four minutes to find Fintan's character sheet, and by the time they made it to the door of the apartment, both of them were gasping for breath from the walk-slash-run to the building, not to mention that they were already late. He'd just have to do it after the session.

Footsteps came up behind them, and Terik spun around to see a blond girl in an oversized pink hoodie, face flushed like she'd raced here as well.

"Hey, guys," Oralie said. "Are we the last ones here?"

"We? Wait— _ you're  _ in our D&D group?" Fintan gasped.

"I'm the DM. Didn't Bronte tell you?"

"Bronte?" Terik wondered. "That's….that's your brother?"

"Yes," Fintan nodded. "What's the big deal?"

"He's my ex-boyfriend," Terik admitted.

" _ Oh _ ."

"Don't worry, we're still on good terms. Well, decent terms. Well, we won't be throwing stuff at each other." He laughed, trying to pass it off as a joke. At least he wouldn't be in a party of strangers, right?

"All Bronte said was that one of his friends was starting a D&D group," Fintan explained. He turned to Oralie. "Thanks for organizing this, I'm super excited."

Terik studied Fintan's grin. "That's your I'm-up-to-something face, isn't it?"

"Please tell me your character isn't chaotic evil," Oralie sighed.

"Chaotic neutral."

" _ Fintan _ ." Oralie managed to pack an older-sibling-worthy amount of annoyance and disdain into that one word. It seemed like this was a repeating occurrence, because Fintan just shrugged. 

"You didn't give us alignment restrictions."

"Don't worry, mine is lawful good," Terik told Oralie. 

" _ Thank  _ you." Oralie took a key out of her pocket. "We should head inside, Kenric's probably wondering where we are."

"Kenric?" Terik wondered. 

It had to be a coincidence, right? There was no way that Kenric was the same Kenric Fathdon from high school. 

"Kenric Fathdon. My queerplatonic partner."

"Um…"

"Don't tell me he's also your ex," Oralie sighed.

"He's also my ex," Terik admitted.

"Is there anyone here who you  _ haven't  _ dated?" Annoyance seeped into Fintan's tone.

"Hopefully not," Terik tried.

" _ Hopefully _ ?"

"I've only ever dated four people, counting you," Terik assured him. "Kenric in my sophomore year of high school, a guy named Emery in my senior year, and Bronte a couple months ago. But there's no way—"

The door opened.

Terik stepped inside.

And Emery, the same Emery from high school, was sitting on the couch, holding hands with Bronte.

"There is a way," he mumbled.

"What?" Kenric called from his beanbag chair. "Hi, everyone!"

"Hello!" Terik responded, choosing to not elaborate on his comment.

"Hey," Emery said, though he looked like he wanted to scream  _ you have to be kidding me. _

Bronte had no such restraint. "You have to be kidding me."

Terik shrugged and set his bag down. Despite the open space on the couch, he had no desire to be in close proximity to both of his ex-boyfriends—especially since they were dating  _ each other _ —and Fintan had already snagged the armchair. He ended up seated on the dining table, next to Oralie, who was sitting sideways on one of the chairs.

"Do you guys already know each other?" Oralie wondered.

"Well….." Bronte mumbled. "I call 'not it' for explaining."

"Me neither," Emery agreed.

"To be fair, I didn't know that Emery was going to be here," Fintan declared, palms raised like he was being arrested. Well, sort of raised: he was lying upside down on the armchair, feet on the backrest and blond ponytail cascading onto the floor. "And at least it's only  _ one  _ of my exes!"

"You've dated Emery, too?" Terik wondered.

Bronte rubbed his temples.

Terik risked a glance at Kenric, hoping that he himself wouldn't have to explain this mess, but Kenric was engrossed in his sketchpad, colored pencil coating his fingertips.

Terik took a deep breath and looked Oralie in the eye. "He's my ex-boyfriend. Everyone but Fintan and you. Fintan's dated Emery—"

"And I've dated Kenric," Emery finished. "This takes 'love triangle' to a new level."

"Any other past dates?" Fintan wondered, glancing at Oralie.

"No. I'm aromantic."

"Well, thanks for making things a little easier."

Oralie fiddled with her hair. "Couldn't you guys have warned me about this?"

Bronte rolled his eyes. "Fintan didn't  _ tell  _ me he was dating Terik—"

"Bronte didn't  _ tell  _ me he was dating Emery—"

"I didn't know about any of this until Bronte and I got here—"

"All Fintan told me was that his friends would be there, he never said that they were also my ex boyfriends, and I was too excited about playing D&D to ask!" 

"Can we just order pizza?" Oralie suggested. "We can sort out the love pentagon later."

"I guess you're right," Terik shrugged. "Topping ideas?"

It took them ten minutes, lots of arguing, and, oddly enough, a debate before cats versus dogs before Terik had finished placing their order. 

"The place is pretty busy, so the pizza won't get here for forty-five minutes or so," Terik announced, setting down his phone. "I brought dessert—maybe we could have that first?" This way, he'd have some sort of a birthday celebration for Fintan after all.

"You brought dessert?" Fintan gasped. "Is that why you were acting so secretive when I asked you what was in your backpack on the run here?"

"Sorta," Terik admitted. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"So….it wasn't a birthday gift after all?"

_ Shoot. _

"It's—"

"You actually  _ forgot _ ?" 

"Fintan, no–"

"I can't believe this. I thought it was just some surprise, that you had something planned for it—but no, you just forgot—did  _ anyone  _ actually remember?"

"Well—" Bronte began.

"I was just—" Terik tried.

"I can't believe this," Fintan repeated.

"Fintan, wait—" Bronte called.

"I thought you actually cared!" With that, Fintan stormed for the door.

Idiot.

He was the world's biggest  _ idiot _ .

He should have said happy birthday to Fintan when they met up.

He should have sent him an email or a text or  _ something. _

He should have planned this better.

Should have, should have, should have.

"You  _ seriously  _ forgot your brother's birthday?" Emery asked Bronte.

"No, I–I got Fintan a gift, it just didn't come in time because of shipping delays, so I was going to give it to him tomorrow! And I was really busy today, I just didn't think to tell him—"

"You  _ really  _ didn't think."

"Well, did  _ you  _ remember?" Bronte shot back. "I don't see you trying to help!"

"Yeah, I was planning to give it to him after the session. Just because he's my ex doesn't mean I don't care about him!" Emery held up a dark blue gift bag. 

"That's a first," Terik muttered.

"What?"

"After we broke up it didn't seem like you cared about me at all. You avoided me for like a week!" Terik wouldn't forget how Emery had gone out of his way to "give him space." Like he needed space. Like he didn't just want them to be friends again.

"I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable!"

"Oh, like that worked," Terik groaned. "It's almost as bad as that time with Kenric."

"Wait, what?"

"You broke up with me over text messaging!" 

"I was out of cell phone minutes for the month!" Kenric defended.

"You could have done it in person!"

"I didn't want it to be super awkward!"

"Like over text is a good idea!"

"You're one to talk about good ideas." Bronte glared at Terik. 

"What does that even  _ mean _ ?" Terik wondered.

"There was that time when–"

"What are you guys even fighting about?" Oralie mumbled.

"Wait, what  _ are  _ we fighting about?" Kenric asked.

Silence.

"Old grievances from when we were young and foolish and dating each other in a  _ different  _ arrangement that we are now?" Bronte suggested.

"That sounds about right," Emery nodded. "Guys, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry about all that, and….for this being a total disaster," Terik agreed. "Can we all agree to  _ forget  _ that we were all once young and stuipd, because we're now slightly less young and slightly less stupid?"

"Okay," Bronte agreed.

Kenric laughed. "Sure. Hug it out?"

"Definitely," Terik agreed.

Emery nodded.

"I'm….not really a hugger," Bronte managed.

"I won't hesitate, friend," Kenric warned.

"Fine." 

If anyone had told Terik this morning that he would be hugging it out with his ex-boyfriends in a few hours, he would have laughed and laughed and laughed.

Somehow, it didn't seem like such a weird thing anymore.

At last, Terik pulled away. "We're not finished yet. I'm going to go check on Fintan."

Emery handed Terik the gift bag. "Tell him happy birthday from me."

"Same," Bronte agreed.

"Also from me," Oralie said. "I didn't know it was his birthday, I would have gotten him something—"

"We can break out the good chocolate to celebrate," Kenric offered. "If he likes chocolate."

"He definitely does," Bronte agreed. "Even  _ white  _ chocolate. Which is disgusting. I prefer chocolate that is as dark and bitter as my soul."

"White chocolate fits that criterion perfectly," Oralie laughed.

Terik smiled as he stepped out the door.

"Fintan?" he called, shutting the door behind him..

His boyfriend hadn't gone very far; he was just outside the apartment, pacing back and forth in the hallway, cape billowing behind him. Fintan had always been a fan of capes, despite any insistence that they were impractical; he claimed that they gave him shade, were warm, and "looked totally awesome."

He was currently  _ rocking  _ that cape.

And Terik was getting off-topic.

"I'm sorry," Terik tried. "I—I do have a gift for you, I should have said something earlier. Happy birthday."

Fintan spun around, staring at the gift bags in Terik's hand. "You guys remembered!"

"Yeah. Well, Kenric and Oralie didn't know that it was your birthday, but they said happy birthday and that they'd break out their supply of good chocolate to celebrate. Which is a  _ struggle _ , knowing them."

Fintan laughed. Well, it was more of a hiccup than a laugh. 

But it was  _ something. _

"Bronte's gift got delayed," Terik explained as he walked closer and handed Fintan the gift bags. 

"Oh." Fintan took them. "Sorry for overreacting. I was kind of an idiot back there."

"That's okay."

"It's just...I didn't have a happy childhood." Fintan took a step closer. "The only person who ever remembered my birthday was Bronte. He was really good about making it special, even if all he could do was make me a card or something. And today….it was kind of like a relapse of that, only I thought he didn't remember, too."

_ Oh. _

"I'm sorry," Terik whispered. 

It was the first words Fintan had ever said about his childhood, barring various misadventures with Bronte. 

"I'm not sure anything I can say can make it any better," Terik told him. "But if you need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks." Fintan slipped his hand into Terik's, his warm fingers interlacing with Terik's cold ones. "Should we go back in?"

Terik felt himself relax at the touch of Fintan's hand, the physical sign that things were okay between them again. Fintan's grudges had always been like fire, hot and angry, burning out as fast as they had flared up. Bronte's were usually more like ice, a hard rock that took ages to melt away and still left a puddle of damp emotion in its wake.

Yet he'd managed to make up with both of them that day.

"Okay."

***

Fifteen minutes later, they were crowded around the counter that had Fintan's birthday doughnuts on it. 

"Do you want to light it?" Terik asked, carefully sticking the last candle into the cinnamon-sugar coated one—Fintan's favorite. It was a good thing that he'd gotten a half dozen.

"Sure." Fintan took out a piece of flint and steel.

Terik laughed.

Bronte rolled his eyes.

"We have a lighter," Kenric tried. He began to rummage around in drawers and cabinets, finally offering the plastic device to Fintan.

"I'm good." Fintan positioned his hands over the first candle.

Oralie grabbed his forearm. "Don't. You. Dare."

"It's my birthday," Fintan tried.

"Yes, and I  _ don't  _ want you causing sparks and burning down the apartment. Why do you even have flint and steel with you?"

"It's important to be prepared."

Oralie sighed. "This is reminding me of high school theater when you tried to talk Ms. Pyren into letting us use real fire in the fireplace. During tech week."

"And I would have gotten away with it if Mr. Vacker hadn't stepped in! Fire hazard, fire schmazard. I just wanted it to look cool."

"It was a wooden set piece!" Terik groaned. "I spent  _ hours  _ getting that thing to look right. You would have burned down the entire set and probably the auditorium."

"Wait," Emery gasped, turning to Fintan. " _ You  _ were the one who was always talking backstage about the crushing weight of administration upon the proletariat. All over them telling you 'no, we can't use real fire'?"

"We were learning about the French Revolution in history! It seemed appropriate."

"You wouldn't shut up! Do you know  _ how  _ hard that made my job as stage manager?"

Bronte turned to Kenric. "Wait, I remember you from tech week now. You did costumes and sets, right?"

"Yeah, mostly because Oralie was spending so much time at rehearsal that I wanted to know what all the hype was about, and it ended up being really fun. You ran lights, right? I remember that you never had to change into all black because you always  _ wore  _ all black and I couldn't tell whether it was just for tech week or not." Kenric studied Bronte's outfit, a black hoodie over a black button-down shirt and black jeans. "I guess not."

Bronte rolled his eyes. "Black is practical. And yes, I did run lights."

"Would you be interested in doing it again?" Oralie asked. 

"By that, she means we've had trouble finding people and could really use the help ," Fintan contributed. He carefully lit the first candle with his glowing match, then the second. They'd agreed to stick with six candles—the most that could reasonably fit—instead of trying to cram nineteen onto the doughnut.

"Sure."

"We're actually all getting together to build sets tomorrow afternoon, so if any of you are free then and want to come help that would be great," Oralie added. "There's going to be pizza."

"I'm in," Terik agreed.

"Sure," Emery nodded.

"I can probably make the last couple hours," Kenric decided.

"Yes, if my history essay isn't a jerk, which it probably will be," Bronte sighed. "I'll most likely miss the first part, but call me and I'll bail you out if there are any major disasters. Which there probably will be."

"There won't be any major disasters," Oralie assured him. "Well, hopefully."

"Speaking of disaster, remember that time in ninth grade when I was supposed to shove Bronte a little during a fight scene but I ended up knocking him over because he's tiny?" Fintan laughed.

"The first, and last, time I was ever onstage," Bronte grumbled. "I'll stick to stage crew, thank you very much."

Kenric laughed. "That reminds me of the time when…."

They sat there, sprawled across the tiny kitchen, reminiscing about old stories from high school theater. Sets collapsing. A stuffed animal used in place of a live one that was actually a dog chew toy that kept squeaking at the wrong moment. The time their director didn't show up to rehearsal because of bad traffic and they had to run the entire thing themselves.

_ Goal: Just don't screw this up _ , Terik remembered.

They were late, all of his ex boyfriends were there, and the session was yet to begin.

Somehow, he'd succeeded with his goal after all.

  
  



End file.
